Teaching Real Life Business Management Skills

Home schooling gives our children business management skills in the course of natural learning and we have the benefit of flexibility to explore these opportunities.

Have you ever thought of a part-time job or business for your children? I'm sure they have.

Business Opportunities

Cottage Industry?
Mowing lawns?
Pamphlet run?
Card making?
Jewellery making?
Pet minding?
Book making?

Have you considered that these small business ideas, born and run from your own home and from your children's minds and ideas involve real world business management skills?

It's not just child play. Have a look at what they can learn:

Real Life Business Management Skills:

This is a bit of our story - from things our kids have invested their time into. I'm sure you're story will be similar, but also unique as each child comes up with unique interests and set of skills they can develop. Through whatever they are doing, they are developing real life, hands-on business management skills such as:

Cost / Profit Ratio (Math)

Our eldest son (and since that time, others have followed in his steps), has always been entrepreneurial and when he was about seven, he began his first business selling fudge.

He learned to search for the cheapest price when buying the ingredients, make the chocolate fudge,clean up, package it and sell it. He earned a good sum of money this way and was able to buy his first bike.

Research Skills

He then grew veggies in the backyard - researched when and what to plant, bought the seeds or seedlings, planted, weeded, watered and picked. He then sold his veggies to me and we all ate and enjoyed. After a while, he decided just to grow the veggies and provide them for the family without charge.

Providing a Service to repeat customers

After that, he mowed lawns. More business management skills needed.

Develop a specialized skill set

The next iniative was training birds. This job was well paid. He was given a baby bird from a pet shop and he would train it, and give it back to the owner. The owner then had the possibility of selling this bird at a higher price.

Using the Opportunity
Usin

At one time, the three boys set up a stand at the park across the road during netball season. They cooked sausages and sold cold cans of drink. The business wasn't that great and they only did this once!

Hard Work

Then he became involved in a pamphlet run and would take on heaps of extra rounds which were paid $20.00 more just because no-one wanted to do that round. He did this for many years before he took on a part-time job working at a supermarket.

Now, he continues to work part-time at the Supermarket and has set up two businesses. Bit by bit, as he needs, he acquires business management skills to suit the unique business requirements. The businesses are still in the infancy stage, but he has been making profits.

Developing a Skill Set to suit the Demand

With the use of expensive software, he has become very apt in transferring video tapes into DVDs. He has done all our videos and we are extremely grateful to him for that. We've have noticed that our own videos were wearing out and it is good to know that our information is safely stored now on DVD.

The second business he has set up with a friend is a Computer Business. He buys computer components and makes computers according to certain specifications determined by the need of the customer and what the computer will be used for.

A Profitable Web Business

Then he began to bring his writing skills plus knowledge base to building his own profitable web business. Check it out here: Computer-Hardware-Explained.com

Working and learning from home this web building course (a complete course which is now run at Universities and TAFE institutions) enabled Nathanael, a 16 year old homeschooler to build an income and a skill set which has set him up for his own website marketing business that he runs today.

Whenever a new idea has budded in his head, he has researched ways to go about it, learned enormous amounts of information and put it into practice, acquiring and refining his business management skills all the time. (For those classically minded homeschoolers, - it is the Trivium in a nutshell: Knowledge - Logic - Finishing off.)

Online Marketing Business

Since then, he has developed a partnership and begun an online marketing business, Smart SEO. That has developed again and his business expertise has developed into 2 more businesses. Even in this endeavour, he continues to learn business management skills of employing, training and recruiting staff, building a team of skilled workers, making careful and clever business decisions. He is still learning;

Now, I am not listing all this to just tell of Nathanael's achievements, but to show a natural progression of any child who thinks of a contribution they can make to their family and society in which they live. Home schooling gives our children more flexibility to explore these opportunities. Read about the benefits of building a website.

All of these initiatives are "business".
Al of these initiatives develop business management skills.
All of these initiatives are learning experiences.
All of these initiatives are building knowledge on knowledge.
All of these initiatives teach responsibility.

All of these initiatives put money in its proper place - not to be treasured too highly, but also, not to be spent so easily. You need to work hard in order to earn it, but there is a way. Find out more in the Free E-Course: How to Build a Profitable Web Business

How to be an entrepreneur?

My seven year old likes to make cards and sells them to the family when we need cards.

My ten year old bakes muffins to sell in order to earn some money for a mission.

My thirteen year old does a pamphlet run. He includes his younger siblings in the job by giving them the folding part of the job and delivering it himself. He pays them for each pamphlet they fold.

My thirteen year old makes all sorts of games - board games, card games and so on and is wondering if this could be a market for him some time. (2012 update: his card game, "Battle Time" has been completed and published, ready for sale; Now, this son is beginning his e-bay business.)

My sixteen year old also has a pamphlet run, which he has had for many years.

Every age has some business idea which is suitable for their level of skills, interest and motivation. I wouldn't ask my seven year old to create a website, even though she does have her own mini-site!

Did you know that a Harris Poll showed that 72% of households are thinking about starting a work-from-home business. What an opportunity for our high school home schooling teens! For example, Computer-Hardware-Explained.com is a site which has been built by our teenage son, and it still generates an income for him, although he is working hard on his own online marketing business.

Where to from here?

Being an entrepreneur is about seeing an opportunity and pursuing it - building the skill set you need to do it, even if the resources are not available to you right then.

Homeschooling is about studying the personality, gifts, skills, desires and spiritual motivation of your children and encouraging them in their uniqueness. How are you encouraging your homeschool teen?